Gaming & Culture —

Gaming gains political clout as ESA pulls out pocketbook

Gaming may become a bigger talking point in the upcoming presidential …

While video games are enjoyed by the majority of people in the United States, politicians and mainstream media reports tend to distort the issue by only focusing on the negative aspects of gaming. In a campaign season, gaming is an easy issue to focus on; who doesn't want to protect the children? To make sure that the gaming industry is represented fairly, Michael Gallagher of the Entertainment Software Association has announced that the ESA will create a political action committee to become involved in election politics by handing out money and voters.

Why is this necessary? We've broken down the candidates' stances on video game legislation, and the responses vary wildly. Hillary Clinton brought up the Family Entertainment Protection Act she introduced in 2005, a bill that was never signed into law. It bears a striking resemblance to other laws that were deemed unconstitutional, at great expense to taxpayers. Barack Obama took a more even-handed approach. "Broadcasters and video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included," he answered. "But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would." For the Republicans, only Mitt Romney responded... and he wasn't exactly pro-gaming.

The money isn't huge, as under federal law a PAC can only give $5,000 to each candidate per election, and the ESA is planning on spending between $50,000 to $100,000 in total. Sprinkling those $5,000 contributions in the right places could get the attention of the candidates, however, and Gallagher doesn't rule out donations to the less-regulated 527 groups, saying only that such action would be "a stage down the road."

More important than money in this close race are votes, and the ESA says it has 100,000 members in its Video Game Voter's Network. "If I can walk into the office of a member of Congress and tell them we have 20,000 voters in their state who are already signed up to write letters and act based on game-related issues that concern them, that’s powerful," Gallagher told the New York Times.

These are first steps in the direction of a more powerful gaming lobby in Washington; with huge sales in 2008, there is much business to protect. With many candidates open to the idea of working with the ESRB and the infrastructure that is already in place in the gaming business, the ESA's move could simply be seen as a defensive measure to make sure lawmakers don't try to take control of the ratings system.

Contributions are also a way to get politicians to take gaming seriously as a business that offers entertainment of all kinds instead of seeing the industry as a sex- and violence-obsessed boogeyman. Politicians may not be as eager to use games as a scapegoat once they have a few thousand dollars in their pockets and a few thousand votes delivered to their door.